Posted on: Wednesday, November 17, 2004
High-tech security devices pitched
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Two Hawai'i-based companies and a handful of others with strong local ties pushed their high-tech toys among the big boys of the security world this week at the Asia-Pacific Homeland Security Summit & Exposition, hoping to make a few more sales to military and security leaders from around the region.
Up on the roof of the Hilton Hawaiian Village yesterday, Chris Martin of Trex Enterprises Corp. tugged on a tactical vest loaded with dummy pipe bombs and stood in front of a camera that can instantly distinguish between Martin's body heat and even non-metal weapons.
The pipe bombs were easily seen in a computerized image on a laptop computer and clearly impressed a foreign security official who said he was prohibited for security reasons from revealing his identity.
Martin, a staff scientist, said Trex's "Sentinel millimeter wave imaging system" is still in the beta phase and the company hopes to eventually lower the $70,000 price tag to $30,000 per unit.
"But I can buy one now?" the official asked.
Company spokeswoman Linda Jameson quickly responded, "We could definitely sell you one now."
San Diego-based Trex Enterprises formed Trex Hawaii in 2000, which has since spun off four Hawai'i-based subsidiaries: Silicon Kinetics, Loea Corp., Trex Enterprises Advance Materials and e-Phocus. The company is working on the Sentinel system with 'Aiea-based Sensomatic Hawaii Inc.
Sensomatic's contribution to the system can help security officials pinpoint the color of suspects' clothes to make identification easier, said Sensomatic president Greg Murphy.
Down on the exhibition floor, where 30 companies were vying for attention, Murphy and his employees talked up their own surveillance technology that will be installed in the next two weeks at the Pali Lookout and Ehukai Beach Park to deter car break-ins and auto thefts.
As Army colonels and Navy captains and even a general or two wandered about, Patrick O'Brien, president of Security Resources in 'Aiea, said the homeland security conference exposes his company's security systems to a wider audience of officials who can order security systems on the spot.
More than 250 federal, state, local and private agencies in Hawai'i use Security Resources' surveillance and security systems, including the state Capitol, Bishop Estate and the Maui Police Department.
"By coming here, we hope to get even more new business and form new relationships," O'Brien said. "A lot of decision makers have already stopped by."
Like the other local companies, O'Brien said he had yet to ring up a sale. But he was asked to make several proposals and visit the locations of possible customers.
Security Resources even got the contract to wire the conference with security cameras, which were all wired into a plasma screen TV.
But all around O'Brien's booth, competitors showed off their own security cameras, turning the exhibition floor into one big surveillance area.
On the other side of the floor, Jason Hirata of 'Ewa Beach was showing off his company's software that makes it easier for soldiers to process a flood of battlefield information.
Hirata is a computer programmer with 21st Century Systems Inc. of Omaha, Neb. But the company has a decidedly local flavor, with seven employees working out of the Manoa Innovation Center, including Hirata and two University of Hawai'i graduates.
And their assignment for the security conference was clear.
"We're trying to demonstrate our abilities," Hirata said, "and hopefully sell our product."
Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8085.
